SEATTLE – A tie never looked so bad, at least not in the eyes of forward Will Bruin. The Sounders had a man advantage for more than 75 minutes Saturday, but failed to score in a disappointing 0-0 tie against the Columbus Crew at CenturyLink Field. It was the fifth time in seven MLS games this season the Sounders (1-4-2) went scoreless. They have only five goals in those seven games. “We need to find a solution to this, because if you can’t tell, I’m pretty frustrated right now,’’ Bruin said after the game. “We were too slow. We moved it too slow. We were too predictable. We didn’t even try to play through the final third.” Crew midfielder Pedro Santos was given a red card in the 15th minute when he went for a ball and kicked Seattle midfielder Alex Roldan in the face. Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer made three substitutions in the second half – bringing in Handwalla Bwana, Magnus Wolff Eikrem and Henry Wingo _ to try to get more aggressive. Most of the second half was played at the Columbus end, but the Sounders couldn’t capitalize. “We’re disappointed in the result,’’ Schmetzer said.” It’s not good enough. I’ll make sure we watch the tape and work on attacking movements to be a little more creative. I think we’re better than that. We need to get down the field before [the opponent] gets a chance to get bunkered in.” Bruin feels the Sounders are playing far too conservatively. “I think everybody in the stadium knew we were going to try to get it and push in wide and cross it,’’ he said. “You’ve got to find other ways to create chances. We just haven’t been able to do it. “We’ve got be willing to take chances. We have to get some creativity and some flair. We’re too caught up with playing simple pass and saying, ‘I’m not going to make a mistake. I’m going to move it to the next guy.’ You’re not going to score like that. It’s so easy to defend.’’ Making matters more difficult was the surprising news on forward Nicolas Lideiro, who didn’t play because of what a foot injury. But Lideiro’s injury wasn’t on the team official report before the game. “When the player has a significant foot injury, it’s his call,’’ Schmetzer said. “We’re sad that he isn’t playing. We’ll take it game by game. Nico has been a very positive influence for us. We missed him, but we had enough players out there capable of breaking lines.” Things don’t get any easier for the Sounders. They have road games at Toronto Wednesday and Portland next Sunday. “We’ll look at the film tomorrow,’’ Bruin said. “I hope we look at ways to exploit Toronto and ways we can attack them.”
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June 2020
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